"The Throne of Heroes has no concept of time, which means we might not have summoned a Heroic Spirit from the past, but one from the future."
Inside the Tohsaka Residence, Tokiomi held a wine glass and maintained an elegant posture. Even though he knew the plan had gone off track and that the summoned Servant would not be affected by Command Spells, he did not lose his composure.
"So this Assassin we summoned might be a Heroic Spirit from the future. However, he is still just an Assassin. Although from your description his strength is indeed impressive, compared to the King I intend to summon, he can only be considered average."
It might be different in other worlds, but in this one, the older something is, the stronger it is. In modern society, because Mystery has faded and True Ether has returned to the Inner Sea of the Star, modern Magi generally cannot compare to those of ancient times. The further back one traces, the stronger the Mystery becomes. Therefore, Tokiomi believed that the oldest King he intended to summon would inevitably be an invincible existence.
Of course, there was not much wrong with this argument. At least in this universe, the strength of Gilgamesh, the oldest King, was indeed extremely high.
Naturally, putting aside those of an exceptional level, for a normal Holy Grail War, summoning this King was indeed equivalent to victory.
Currently, in a restaurant in Fuyuki City, Caelus and Kirei sat opposite each other. The former watched the latter eat a plate of mapo tofu. Even though the hot and spicy tofu made him sweat profusely, he did not stop. Even in those utterly hollow eyes, a hint of spirit seemed to appear because of tasting this spicy food.
Seeing this, Caelus became thoughtful. He also picked up a spoon and took a bite of the piping hot and spicy mapo tofu in front of him.
Hmm, no flavor.
Caelus took a few more spoonfuls to taste it, even carefully feeling the tenderness of the tofu, but he simply could not sense what kind of flavor it had. He did not even feel the spiciness.
Meanwhile, Kirei quickly finished the large plate of mapo tofu in front of him. He looked at Caelus, who ate the mapo tofu with a straight face and no expression, and asked, "Can you handle spicy food well?"
"No, I cannot taste anything."
"Spiciness, if I remember correctly, is not a normal sense of taste, but a sensation of pain."
"Yes, so I do not have a sense of pain either."
Kirei looked at the young man in front of him. Although he knew the other might be older than him or come from a more distant future and had experienced things far more grand than himself, he still could not help but want to ask.
"Having lost your sense of taste, smell, and pain, and with not even a hint of color in your eyes, living in this world, do you not feel sorrow or despair? What exactly do you persist for in your life? What kind of desires and dreams do you have?"
Kirei considered his own emotions to be very different from others, but after meeting the young man in front of him, he felt that his own problems might not be as severe. At least he could currently taste the slight pleasure hidden in the pain brought by the spiciness.
He was confused and puzzled by his own existence, so could the person in front of him give him an answer? What did he persist for, to the point of being engraved in human history as a Heroic Spirit?
"What do I persist for?"
Caelus scooped another spoonful of mapo tofu into his mouth and said in a flat tone, "I just want to taste flavors I recognize, see colors I recognize, and know the past that I have lost. Also, because there is an existence that needs me, I responded to that need."
"Master, you also seem very lost. You are confused about the value of your existence and the differences brought about by your uniqueness. Therefore, you are also searching for your path in life, aren't you?"
"Ah, I am indeed searching for myself."
"Do not think too much. Excessive thinking and over-exploration will ultimately lead to nothingness. Because you will constantly wonder whether the path you are taking is correct, carefully distinguish the gaps between paths, and think about yourself, whether you are correctly stepping on the path. When these countless questions and doubts weigh on you, you will only fall into nothingness, because in the end you will feel that everything is meaningless."
"Cast everything aside and follow your instincts. Just as you do not know the meaning of your life, you have clear preferences, do you not? You love eating mapo tofu, and you like the sensation that spiciness brings you. So why not choose to persist on this path and dig deep into the reason behind this hobby of yours?"
At this point, Caelus picked up the hot water on the table and sipped it slowly. At the same time, his eyes seemed to lose focus as he looked at Kirei, but in reality he was looking at the blue screen that only he could see.
A line of text was currently scrolling across the blue screen.
[After saying the above words, pick up the water cup and take small sips while pretending to be profound.]
Yes, that is right. His current actions, including the words spoken above, were all read from the script provided by the system. After all, how could he possibly persuade someone? Do you expect a newborn who just crawled out of the void to guide someone on how to escape their confusion?
[System: "So Host, why do you want me to help you enlighten Kirei? Although I cannot give you too many spoilers, I can tell you plainly that this guy is not a good person. He especially loves bringing pain to others."]
"He treated me to a meal."
[System: "Ah?! Just because of that! This meal did not even have any taste for you, and you could not even feel the spiciness!"]
"That is my problem. Since he treated me to a meal, I will find a way to resolve the confusion in his heart. That way, after repaying the favor of the meal, if he turns against me when seizing the Holy Grail, I can strike without any burden."
Actually, even without repaying the favor, Caelus would have struck without burden. He only acted this way out of lingering moral concepts. It turned out that the two entities that made up his current self were quite kind-hearted, or at least their moral concepts were intact.
[System: "Well, okay."]
The system had actually expected this. After all, he was a brand new entity fused from the remnants of the void. Through the script it had written, it understood that the reason this newborn Caelus became its Host, helped it complete tasks, and embarked on this journey was also to repay the favor of a new life.
I hope this child can gain enough emotion and existence during these journeys to become more like a human.
Maybe I can set up some side quests later and replace the rewards with things that boost Charm. That might help this kid find a girlfriend or like-minded partners, which would greatly increase his existence and fill the void in his heart.
Kirei, lost in thought, seemed to have grasped something. He felt as if he had vaguely found his path in life, though it had not fully revealed itself yet.
After paying and leaving, he looked at the deepening night and said to Caelus beside him, "Other Masters are about to summon their Servants. Assassin, scout around. If we are lucky, we might be able to eliminate a Master-Servant pair right at the start."
"Okay."
Without Caelus making any visible movement, he suddenly vanished. Even Kirei, as his Master, somewhat forgot what the Assassin he summoned looked like or what his attributes were. He only vaguely remembered that he was not one of the Hassans, seemed to be male, and had just eaten with him. However, he could not recall any physical features such as height or build at all.
In reality, Caelus did not use invisibility or teleportation. He simply used a tiny bit of the power of Nihility, and his sense of presence plummeted from its already low state at an exaggerated speed, reaching a point where even modern camera equipment could not capture him.
Caelus glanced at the bewildered Kirei before walking into the night.
The passing pedestrians did not notice a young man in rather peculiar clothing walking past them.
(To be continued.)